Here I will attempt to update all you beautiful souls on some major points of the past 3 years:::
- December 31, 2010 was an amazing New Years Eve, spent with the tightest group of friends I'd ever been a part of.
Unforgettable NYE with my BFFLs
- February 2011: After nearly 2 years in the professional pharmacy program at SCCP, I dropped out to pursue what I really love: plant biology y español. I would have kept it up had I not developed a strong moral stance against the American pharmaceutical system. Note: I have mad respect for my former SCCP class and some of the most amazing people I know are now pharmacists.
- Changed my major, took the rest of that semester off, and starting working M - F at Cabo Fresh Taco with my BFFL and former roommate, Lauren.
Wish I had a picture of us slingin' tacos
- May 22, 2011: Lauren failed to call me for my 22nd birthday. This was because she was severely sick with a heart infection (though no one knew it was that at the time).
- December 28, 2011: 2 (successful) heart-transplants later, Lauren died peacefully in her sleep from a blood clot after 6 months of being in and out of the hospital. Thus, dropping out was perhaps the best decision I ever made, if only for the fact that I was able to spend at least 5 days a week with her before she became ill, even if it was in the context of tacos.
- December 31, 2011: I gave my first eulogy at Lauren's funeral, and managed to make people laugh during it, perhaps my most proud moment. We buried her that day in Dana, North Carolina, among an apple orchard that is conveniently located across the street from a sweet thrift store.
Rebecca, Emily and me
- January 2012: I told Rebecca I would backpack Europe with her and Jill and started working 2 minimum wage jobs at 35 - 40+ hours a week to fund it.
- June 1, 2012: The 3 of us board a plane from JFK to Dublin.
Jill behind the camera
- Friday the 13th of June 2012: We take a train from Koeln to Berlin. I thought I had the address of some warehouse clubs to go to, but I was confusing that with information about Amsterdam (which doesn't have warehouse clubs, anyway). I chose the train-stop we got off at, since I "had" the information (oops...at this point I didn't have the heart to tell the girls I was misinformed), we wandered around in the dark and found a bar where a kind waiter pointed us in the direction of Katerholzig, the type of club we had been looking for. It was truly amazing - the colors, the music, the international feel, open non-stop from Thursday night - Monday morning. I had a beer, danced, then went back to get another beer, which was quickly stolen over conversation by an English boy who I had talked to previously in the night, thus forcing me to get back in line to buy a replacement (where are your manners, boy?!)
- This is when I met Matan. I rummaged through my black-hole of a backpacker's purse and he asked, "What are you drinking?" to which I responded, "Berliner".
The morning we met; there's Jillian in the corner.
This synopsis is by no means complete but it answers the question as to how I am now residing in Tel Aviv, Israel:: meeting my olive, Matan. My personal equivalent of "my other half" or "my better half" is "my olive", inspired by the Spanish phrase "mi media naranja" (my orange half) and my heart-healthy obsession with olives (they contain the good fat! &, quite literally, the salt of life.)
I completed my BS in Biology with a minor in Spanish in May, 2013. I moved here a week ago, boarding my flight from Charlotte on June 19th and arriving here the 20th, approximately 15 hours after no sleep and some unexpectedly enjoyable movie watching.
That's perhaps my favorite thing about trans-Atlantic flights - watching the most random movies (often that I've never heard of) and finding some deep life-relevance in them. This time around it was "Beautiful Creatures" and "The Great and Powerful Oz". Don't judge me.
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